1 smelly zebra mussel sparks search in Spicer

SPICER – The tiny zebra mussel that was found Monday on a dock on the southeast side of Green Lake isn’t much to look at.

After being passed around a few times and stored in a baggie with a bit of water, the adult zebra mussel — most likely dead — was starting to stink by Wednesday.

“He’s not camera shy,” said Dave Coahran, area fisheries supervisor with the Department of Natural Resources, who was the keeper of the zebra mussel at the DNR office in Spicer.

But the presence of this one zebra mussel was enough to launch the DNR into a rapid response Tuesday, with five people searching docks, rocks, boat lifts and rafts for any sign of any other adult zebra mussel. They came up empty-handed.

With gusty northwest winds “crashing into the docks,” DNR aquatic invasive species specialist Nick Brown said it wasn’t easy looking through the turbid water, but he and the others also used their hands to feel for the hard, nubby mussels that typically latch onto things submerged in lakes.

Brown will be back on Green Lake on Thursday but wasn’t sure what direction the investigation will take next.

That direction will come from DNR officials in St. Paul.

Ann Pierce, DNR section manager for the Division of Ecological and Water Resources, said the efforts could include searching additional areas for adult zebra mussels or taking water samples to test for the microscopic veligers — baby zebra mussels.

Pierce said that although it was confirmed that a zebra mussel was found in Green Lake, that does not necessarily mean the lake will be designated as being infested at this time.